Non Sufficit Orbis: Harris must pay $525,000 for sign blocked by I-10 bridge | Front page

I'm outraged this morning over an article I read in the Houston Chronicle regarding a Clear Channel billboard near I-10 (West-bound & Highway 6). Judge Jacqueline Lucci Smith ordered the county to pay Clear Channel the $525,000. Apparently Judge Smith doesn't believe motorists can still see the sign.

Harris must pay $525,000 for sign blocked by I-10 bridge | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

BILLY SMITH II CHRONICLE

At issue is a 25-foot limit on surrounding structures that Clear Channel has rights to from when it purchased the visibility easement in 2001. The HOV off-ramp apparently violates the visibility easement agreement.

What really upsets me is that half a million dollars is being paid to Clear Channel AND they get to raise the billboard by the city. I passed the billboard this morning and it is CLEARLY visible (see photo below).

Then Harris County Toll Road Authority Director Gary Stobb is quoted blowing off the size of the settlement as just an additional cost to the Katy Freeway expansion project. And that is the problem with public officials spending tax dollars. It isn't their money so they JUST DON'T CARE.

Stobb downplayed the significance of the settlement, saying the amount is a fraction of the $250 million HCTRA invested in the Katy Freeway expansion. The highway project cost $2.8 billion overall. "It's not like we built the wrong ramp ... ," he said. "It just is an additional cost to that design solution that wasn't apparent until after it was under construction.

I'm outraged over this settlement. I will be writing officials about this misuse of our tax dollars.

Here's a photo I took from my office of the billboard in question. As you can see from the Chronicle's photo above that the billboard has been stripped to its frame I have outlined the billboard in my photo in yellow. Click on the photo below to open the full size.